[TriLUG] Open Source Empowerment

[sholton at mindspring.com]

Tanner Lovelace <lovelace at wayfarer.org> writes:

> With Open Source you have the opportunity to teach
> yourself what you need to do to fix whatever problem you have.

There's another part, one that I think too many both inside the 
Open Source community and outside miss.

One of the most critical functions provided by "Joe User" with
any software is to discover deficiencies: either missing features 
or outright bugs. This is a role that can be played by anyone.

In closed source, when Joe User discovers something which 
doesn't work the way he wants, he has two choices: adapt to
the way it does work, or lobby the vendor for change.

Open Source, through the simple threat of a fork, provides 
a third option, choose someone elses implementation.

With Open Source, the more people there are just using the 
software, the more likely it is that deficiencies will be found
and changes provided. These "changes" might not always be 
correct, but "correct" is something for the users to decide.



-- 
Steve Holton
sholton at mindspring.com